


Coming home.

by JaceRMontague



Series: 30k in 30 days [7]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst, Army, F/F, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Military, Soldiers, just mentioned, not graphic or anything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-07
Updated: 2016-11-07
Packaged: 2018-08-29 18:13:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8500108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaceRMontague/pseuds/JaceRMontague
Summary: Emma comes home to her girlfriend and their son after being deployed. The only thing is, she's home seven months early and has an honourable discharge to her name.





	

**Author's Note:**

> this is a chapter for a story i was working on a while ago.

Emma wasn’t talking. Emma wasn’t okay. She wasn’t okay when she was bought back to base and she wasn’t okay when she was honourably discharged three and a half months later.

Better than she had been when she was first bought back to base, better than she was when she punched the punch bags until her knuckles bled and her legs gave out and she’d sit on the ground not letting anybody touch her while refusing to cry before she’d lap the training ground until her knees buckled again and her lungs burned, she could easily be on the training ground for three, four hours at a time. She was better than she had been when she woke up in the early hours of the morning silently crying because of the memories of the night she was attacked – memories that had become nightmares that Emma woke every night because of, crying, covered in goose pimples and feeling dirty because no matter how hard she had scrubbed her body in the showers she could still feel him on her.  Emma was better than she had been a fortnight prior when she woke up in the early hours crying and within seconds she found herself doubled over a toilet, the meagre contents of her stomach being emptied into the pan. That day she dragged herself to the medical tent that was a ten minute walk from base. After blood tests, amongst other tests, it was decided that Emma would be discharged honourably and would fly stateside in two weeks’ time.  Emma had spent fourteen weeks being protected by the men in the squadron and the final two she had spent coming to terms with what had happened and what was going to happen.

The only immediate silver lining she could think of was that she was going home to Regina and Henry and she wouldn’t have to leave them for eighteen months again. She had chosen not to tell the duo that she was coming home more than six months earlier than she was meant to be because she wanted to surprise her two favourite people, besides, Emma reasoned to herself, all Regina would do if she found out that Emma was coming home early was worry about why and they was a conversation Emma would rather have face to face than over the unreliable phone or through letters that would have taken the rest of Emma’s tour to travel between the two women.

So Emma was better now that she was back in her scratched up, yellow Volkswagen, cruising down highways as she had been for hours now. She was tired of driving. She was hungry and in dire need for fresh coffee, though she knew she was meant to be cutting down on her caffeine consumption. She pulled over at a gas station after another half hour of driving, bought herself a sandwich and a coffee to go and got back into the bug because now that she was this close to her family she didn’t want to spend any more time away from them.

She found the hidden exit and followed it down to the ‘Welcome to Storybrooke’ sign and slowed her car down as she drove through the town before she came to a stop outside of the mayoral mansion. She stayed sitting for ten minutes, as it dawned on her that now that she was back with her family she would have to tell Regina why she was back. She steeled herself before she slid out of the car bringing her duffle and rucksack with her because she knew that once she was inside 108 Mifflin Street, she wouldn’t be leaving any time soon, even if I was just to remove her bags from the car. She locked up the car and stood in the porch. She knocked at the front door and wished she had changed out of her uniform because it had started to stick to her again and probably still smelt of sweat and dirt and sand and heat.

 

“Momma! Momma! It’s Mama!” She could hear Henry shout from somewhere within the house, she looked to the left and could see a brunet boy with his face pressed against the lounge window, he was staring at her car as from his angle he couldn’t see her. He looked so grow up. The last time Emma had seen the boy he was three. He was a toddler. Now he was nearly six.

“Henry, dear, it can’t be Emma sweetheart, she’s not coming home till Christmas.”  
“It Is! It Is Mamma! Look!”

“Henry. I need to answer the door. It can’t be-“

Regina opened the door.

“Emma?” The brunette said, Emma couldn’t decide if Regina was talking to her son or to her.

“Hi.” She said softly.

She dropped her bags, stepping forward and wrapped her girlfriend in her arms. They held each other tightly, they kissed briefly; they would have kissed all day if a certain young boy wasn’t there to ‘ew’ at the women kissing. They began hugging each other tightly again as if Emma wasn’t really there. That she’d disappear at any moment.

“My turn! My turn mama!”

The two women gave a small chuckle as they parted for their son. Emma was watery eyed, tears threating to spill but tears were cascading down Regina’s face as she grinned.

Emma scooped the boy into her arms as easily as she did seventeen months ago and he wrapped his legs around her torso tightly and his arms around her neck, she held him close and kissed his forehead.

“I missed you mama” he whispered as he began playing with loose strands of hair that fell round the back of Emma’s neck.

“I missed you too, kiddo.”

Leaving her bags in the porch, she kept one hand around henry to keep him against her a­­­­nd outstretched her other hand to Regina who grasped it tightly and led Emma inside the house, Emma kicked the door shut with a backwards flick of her leg, Regina would have told her off for that any other day but it wasn’t any other day. Regina led her family into the lounge and Emma sat on the sofa, her girlfriend close to her, she wrapped the hand that was holding Regina’s around the brunettes shoulder before tilting her head to the older woman and kissing her gently.

“I’ve missed you, too, Gi”  
“I’ve missed you, Em.”

The blonde smiled softly.

“How come you’re home so early?”

“Are you complaining?” Emma said softly, joking with the brunette.   
“No, no, of course not. It’s just I wasn’t expecting you home so soon. You still had seven months left of tour.”

  
Emma looked at the boy who was curled against her lap, one hand still playing with the fly away hairs, one clutching Emma’s jacket like it was a lifeline and if he let go she would disappear again. She looked back at his other mother and licked her lips that had suddenly become very dry, as well as her throat.

“I’ll explain later.” She said, nodding her head towards henry, indicating the tale of her early arrival to Storybrooke wasn’t to be over heard by small ears.  
  
“When do you go back to work mama?”  Henry asked as he sat up to look straight at Emma.

“I’m not, kiddo. Well not back to my old job. I’m going to work here instead.” Emma said, she felt happier at every word because they were true and saying them out loud made them real. Also, with every word the smile on the child’s face grew.

“Do you promise, mama?” he asked with his eyes wide and his pinkie finger held up for Emma to make the ultimate promise.

“I promise Henry.” The now former soldier said softly as she looped her pinkie around the tiny finger that had been thrust in front of her.

That was enough of a guarantee for the boy for him to release his death grip on Emma’s uniform and for him to slide of her lap and run upstairs.

Emma turned to face Regina who had been watching Emma’s and Henry’s conversation.

“Are you really going to stay here?”

“Really.”

Regina leant forward and captured Emma’s lips within her own.

“Stop smiling, woman, it’s hard to kiss you.” Emma whispered into the kiss which only made Regina smile even more.  
  
She suddenly pulled away from Emma.

“I thought you had another three years before you could leave?”

“I was discharged.” Emma replied simply

“Dishonourably?” Regina enquired

“No,” Emma shook her head softly. “Honourably.” She continued. She absent mindedly touched the scabs and scars on her knuckles and fingers.

“What happened?” Regina whispered as she took Emma’s hands and kissed her knuckles so gently that it was almost as if her lips hadn’t touched the blonde’s knuckles at all.

“I had a falling out with a punch bag. A few times.”  
  
Oh, god. Regina thought to herself.

 _‘It’s okay. I’m okay. I just punched the bag a few times too many. I’d rather train and not be dishonourably charged than punch that dick in the face and be released.’_ Emma had told her once when she had phoned to talk about how a sergeant in her patrol had made sexist remarks towards Emma.

She knew that something must have happened for Emma to attack the bags with that much vigour that her knuckles had all been split and that around them there were fresh scars too.

“What happened?”

“I spent too long on the bag.”

“You know what I mean, Emma.”  
“I’ll tell you when the kid’s asleep, it’s not something he should hear.”

Regina nodded and kissed Emma once more before standing to make the blonde a mug of tea and some dinner while Emma picked up her bags and went to shower because the longer she stayed in the uniform around Regina and Henry,  the worse she  felt.

By the time she had scrubbed her body red raw again, returned downstairs and made her way to the kitchen, a dinner of homemade burgers had been cooked and were about to be plated and henry was setting the table. Emma was grateful Regina had cooked one of her favourite meals. She made her way over to Regina and kissed the brunettes cheek before helping to plate up meals, all the time she would find a way to touch Regina whether it was touching her hand or bumping their hips together as she turned around to place henrys plate in front of him. The three sat with their food, Henry was determined her was going to sit next to Emma and so Regina sat at the head of the table, still close enough to Emma that due could ‘accidentally’ graze her hand against Emma’s.

“You’re wearing the dinosaur hoodie!” henry stated when he saw the baggy, dark green hoody Emma was wearing.   
“Yeah buddy! It’s my favourite!” Emma replied.

The meal was filled with chatter from Henry who was filling Emma In on everything she had missed over the last eighteen months, though after ten minutes he was still describing the crafts day he had had at school two days ago.

Emma smiled at the way that henry spoke. Like nothing was unimportant, everything was worth a part in his story because everything was exciting to him.

An hour later, the plates had been washed, dried and put away and henry had managed to get his timeline to ten months ago, probably, the boy’s precision for every detail disappeared after day two in his story, as had his ability to recall events in chronological order.

The had moved back into the lounge’s sofa where Emma was curled into Regina’s side, her feet tucked under her, a mug of tea held in one hand as her other hand held Regina’s as Henry sat on Regina’s lap, telling Emma about the things that she knew about like when henry had gone on a school trip to a winter wonderland in November and got scared by deer. And things that she didn’t know about like how a man called ‘robin’ had wanted to ‘take Regina to granny’s for coffee, or a milkshake… or something’ and how Regina had ‘said a bad word to him and slammed the door in his face’ because he’d said something that the young boy hadn’t heard properly.

 

“… And that’s everything that you missed mama”

“Why thank you henry!” Emma said as she kissed the forehead of the young boy as he grinned   
“right young man, bedtime” Regina said softly

“But momma! Mama is here.” His small face began to crease in worry, the two women knew that Henry was scared Emma was going to disappear and not come back for months upon months again.

Emma let go of Regina’s hand, placed her mug on the coffee table and sat henry on her lap

“Kiddo. I’m going to be here every day, kay?”

Henry nodded, his brow began to un-crease

“And, tell you what, I’ll come up and help you get ready for beddy-byes and I’ll read you a bed time story, if you’re not too big for them now.” 

Henry nodded enthusiastically, jumped up and practically dragged Emma out of the room, she herself dragged Regina too because she held Regina’s hand as henry led the two women upstairs. Regina offered to watch henry as he brushed his teeth because he was still finding loopholes not to brush his them properly but henry had wanted both women so the two perched on the edge of the bath, holding one another’s hands, Regina’s head on Emma’s shoulder.

The two watched as he scrubbed his teeth before they followed him to his room where he got himself changed.

He jumped into the bed and pulled his duvet to his chin, he suddenly sat up and patted both sides of his bed

“Henry sandwich!” he cheered

Emma, incredibly happy that henry had remembered their old antics, walked round the bed and sat at henrys right while Regina sat at his left.

“Yous gotta lie down!” henry said, looking between the two

“We’ll lie down when you lie down.” Emma said in a teasing voice.

The boy immediately lay down and so both of the women did. They lay facing one another.

“Bedtime story mama!”

“Once upon a time there was a brave knight, he fought dragons and saved maidens. His name was henry.” Emma began.

After ten minutes the soft snores of henry filtered into the air and so the two women kissed his forehead and, after tucking him in, they left the room.

Emma led Regina back downstairs to the lounge, the room furthest from henry if he woke up.

She sat down and Regina sat next to her, their fingers entwined.

“Emma.”

Emma looked at Regina whose eyes were filled with worry. Emma’s mouth was dry; she was certain Regina could hear her heartbeat.

“Emma, why were you discharged?”

“I, um, I,”

Regina squeezed Emma’s hand comfortingly.

“I, um. I need water”

Regina nodded and left the room, she returned less than a minute later with jug of water and two glasses. She poured a glass for Emma and handed it to her before sitting back down, holding Emma’s hand once more. Emma took a sip and placed the glass on the coffee table.

“Emma, dear, are you okay?”

Emma shrugged.

“When I was on tour. I, um.” She paused. She didn’t actually know what to say. Regina squeezed her hand again.

“Were you hurt?” Regina asked her voice barely above a whisper

Emma nodded

“I was attacked” she whispered.

“By who?”

“Sargent Leo.”

“A soldier?” Regina asked, shocked.

“Yeah.”

“How did he attack you?”

“I think you know Gi.”

Regina’s grip on Emma’s hand tightened and her thumb stoked soothing circles on the back of Emma’s hand.

“I’m going to kill him. Where is he?”

“He’s still on deployment. He got transferred. I don’t know where though.”

“When did he-“Regina didn’t know how to finish her sentence

“Nearly four months ago.”

“How come you didn’t tell me?”

“I wanted to forget it. Telling you made it real. And I didn’t want it to be real. I wanted to forget it Gina.” Emma whispered as tears fell.

Regina wiped tears away from Emma’s cheek.

“Why did they wait so long to send you home?”

“I – they –“Emma leant forward and picked up her glass, she took a sip and stared at the water in the glass.

“Emma. Why did they take so long?” Regina asked, her voice urgent, she knew very few soldiers got sent home after being sexually attacked, she knew that if Emma had been sent home it was because the problem was deeper than she had been told.

“They didn’t think there was any more consequences other than nightmares and a touch of PSD.”

“But there is?” Regina asked.

Emma nodded, the tears falling faster, she was on the brink of outright sobbing.

“Emma, darling. What’s happened?” Regina asked, her voice soft.

“I’m, I’m” Emma stopped talking, she shut her eyes and Regina watched as the blonde she loved started breathing in the way that she did when she was trying to combat a panic attack. All she could do to help was draw Emma nearer to her body as she traced circles on the blonde’s lower back.

“I’m pregnant, Gina.” Emma whispered

Her voice was that quiet that Regina could decide if she’d heard that properly but the way the blonde shook in her arms made Regina realise that she had.

She held Emma closer, resting her head on the blondes as Emma wept into her chest. Regina could feel tears burning her own eyes, running down her cheeks.

Someone had hurt her Emma. Someone had unlawfully touched her son’s other mother. Someone had broken an honourable soldier into a crying wreck with an honourable discharge. Regina was hurt because Emma was hurt. But she knew that she would do whatever it took to make the blondes hurt go away.

 

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you all have a lovely day,
> 
> love always,  
> sam.


End file.
